Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania to Investigate Modern Spiritualism: In Accordance with the Request of the Late Henry SeybertUniversity of Pennsylvania. Seybert Commission for Investigating Modern Spiritualism
Religion
Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania to Investigate Modern Spiritualism: In Accordance with the Request of the Late Henry Seybert
University of Pennsylvania. Seybert Commission for Investigating Modern Spiritualism
Parapsychology -- Investigation; Spiritualism
The pins were afterwards thrown out over the curtain. Mr. Sellers picked
one up as soon as it fell, and found it warm in the split, as though it
had been worn. The drumming was probably upon the tambourine.
A hand was seen moving rapidly with a trembling motion--which prevented
it from being clearly observed--above the back curtain between Mr. Yost
and Mrs. Gillespie. Paper was passed over the curtain into the Cabinet
and notes were soon thrown out. The notes could have been written upon
the small table within the enclosure by the right hand of the Medium,
had it been free. Mrs. Keeler then passed a coat over the curtain, and
an arm was passed through the sleeve, fingers, with the cuff around
them, being shown over the curtain. They were kept moving, and a close
scrutiny was not possible.
Mr. Furness was then invited to hold a writing-tablet in front of the
curtain, when the hand, almost concealed by the coat-sleeve and the
flaps mentioned as attached to the curtain, wrote with a pencil on the
tablet. The writing was rapid, and the hand, when not writing, was kept
in constant tremulous motion. The hand was put forth in this case not
over the top curtain, but came from under the flap, and could easily
have been the Medium's right hand were it disengaged, for it was about
on a level with his shoulder and to his right, between him and Mrs.
Gillespie. Mr. Furness was allowed to pass his hand close to the curtain
and grasp the hand for a moment. It was a _right_ hand.
Soon after the Medium complained of fatigue, and the sitting was
discontinued. It was declared by the Spiritualists present to be a
fairly successful séance. When the curtains were removed, the small
table in the enclosure was found to be overturned, and the bells,
hammer, etc., on the floor.
It is interesting to note the space within which all the manifestations
occurred. They were, without exception, where they would have been had
they been produced by the Medium's right arm. Nothing happened to the
left of the Medium, nor very far over to the right. The sphere of
activity was between the Medium and Mr. Yost, and most of the phenomena
occurred, as, for example, the whirling of the tambourine, behind Mrs.
Gillespie.
The front curtain--_i.e._, the main curtain which hung across the
corner--was 85 inches in length, and the cord which supported it, 53
inches from the floor. The three chairs which were placed in front of it
were side by side, and it would not have been difficult for the Medium
to reach across and touch Mr. Yost. When Mrs. Keeler passed objects over
the curtain, she invariably passed them to the right of the Medium,
although her position was on his left; and the clothes-pins, paper,
pencil, etc., were all passed over at a point where the Medium's right
hand could easily have reached them.
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